Westbound/Eastbound

[rincew1nd]

As I mentioned in "The New Circle" thread I have today needed to travel between Euston and Liverpool Street, and return.

Coming home I walked towards the Circle/H&C/Met platforms at Liverpool Street and had to think for a few minutes:

The platforms are described as "Westbound" and "Eastbound", and whilst the Tube Map shows Liverpool Street as being on a East-West line, it's location at the eastern end of the Circle made me pause to think about which platform I needed to be on.

Aldgate and Tower Hill are shown near as damnit south of Liverpool Street, with every other Circle Line station being west of Liverpool Street, the only places east of Liverpool Street are Aldgate East et cetera to Barking.

Knowing that a "Amersham (Fast)" on the DMI meant 'train to Euston Square' I stayed on the platform I was on, but it wasn't until I looked at the platform DMI I was confident I was in the right place.

Is this perhaps an example of why the platforms should be described as "Circle Clockwise, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan Lines Eastbound"?

[metman]

In the past I've seen the DMIs say trains towards Baker Street, which sounds better!

[rincew1nd]

Yup, "C, H&C and M lines, trains to Baker St [or Victoria] and beyond", dead easy to grasp, East/West when the journey options are North/South, not so easy!

[Chris M]

I remember a thread on here, possibly a couple of years ago, discussing this very thing. There the example was Tower hill to Paddington, where it is/was* quicker to get an eastbound train despite Paddington being well to the west of Tower Hill.

*Before the T-cup, I don't know whether it is now quicker to go via Victoria or via Edgware Road.

[rincew1nd]

Hmmm, thinking about it, how about:

"Circle, Hammersmith & City
and Metropolitan Lines
via Baker Street*"

and

"Circle, Hammersmith & City
and Metropolitan Lines
via Aldgate and Aldgate East"

Absolutely no confusion as to where to go then.

*I toyed with King's Cross St Pancras for a bit, but decided to go with the last place you could change lines, inkeeping with the "Catch the first train, then change" mantra. All you really need is the next station in the relevant direction, though I suspect that people/passengers/customers may struggle to find Moorgate more that they would to find King's Cross St Pancras.

[Colin]

Looks like this thread could be heading towards the Railway Idea's, Proposals & suggestions board - but before it does...

All I would add is that generally speaking the line between Edgware Road & Liverpool Street is generally East/West, so that's why it is named thus.

The section Tower Hill to Gloucester Road is also East/West - so the same principle applies.

Perhaps the only really odd bit on the Circle route is High Street Ken to Paddington, where the District line directions are used - Westbound towards Wimbledon and Eastbound High St Ken towards Paddington.

It does lead to some odd/confusing situations, like Westbound at High St Ken when you are heading to Westminster, for example. But on the whole it works.

In fact all lines, Circle aside, are generally described according to their overall end to end status rather than locally station by station. There are of course exceptions, as there are to any rule, like the Jubilee Is half East/west and half North/South - and part of the Picc is West/North. Even the District had an anomaly on the Wimbledon branch (North/South) until it was brought into line with the rest of the line, now being East/West. The Met, of course, becomes North/South from Baker Street.

[Deleted]

In Berlin, lines S40 and S41 form the equivalent to the Circle line, which is signed at platform entrances as "Ring" and then a circular arrow symbol to show which way round the trains are going. Other lines from the same platform are signed with their terminal station as usual. That works well and obviates any confusion about whether circular route trains are heading east or west.

Incidentally, the Ring operates by having trains come in from suburban termini, do a complete circuit (or more) of the Ring line and then head off elsewhere as another line. Services are the rough equivalent of Hammersmith - Circle clockwise x 1.5 - Barking, Wimbledon - Circle anti-clockwise x 1.5 - Uxbridge, or Richmond - Circle clockwise x 1.5 - Olympia. There are no continually circling trains, although the line is shown as such on maps.

[Deleted]

The Berlin 'Ring' did indeed come in from the suburbs, did a circuit and then headed off to another destination, using lines S45 (Schonefeld Airport), S46 (Konigs Wusterhausen) and S47 (Spindlersfeld) for the suburbs. That applied from 16.06.2002 when the Ring was finally completed. This was necessary because the round trip time was 63 minutes.

However, from 28.05.2006 the Ring became a self-contained Circle Line in its own right (S41 and S42). The round trip time was reduced to 60 minutes (because all trains were class 481) and the basic service is every 10 mins (6 trains per circle), increased in the peaks to 5 mins (12 trains per circle). Parts of the Ring are supplemented by other services, but the sections between Westend and Gesundbrunnen via Wedding, Neukolln and Treptower Park, and Schonhauser Allee and Gesundbrunnen are solely a Ring service.

The advantage of the Berlin Ring is that there are no conflcting junctions (i.e. the likes of Praed Street, Baker Street, Aldgate etc., etc.) with trains having others crossing in front of them heading in another direction. There are thus flyunder/flyover arrangements at Gesundbrunnen, Schonhauser Allee, Ostkreuz, Treptower Park and Neukolln.

[Deleted]

The Berling ring sounds much like the Ringen in Oslo
Coming from west they form the line 6, go thru the main central part, start the circle, and about halfway round they become line 4, bfore going thru main central part again and out on the east.

Pretty much like coming from wimbledon, going victoria-aldgate-kx-bks-hsk-vict-aldgateeast->, with line change at about euston sq/gps.